NPR Hosts Doctor Blasting AA

Dr. Lance Dodes

A friend of mine introduced to me a report in which a psychologist blasts AA.

In an interview on National Public Radio, Dr. Lance Dodes blasts the supposed success rate of Twelve Step programs, which hovers between 5-10 percent, according to Dodes.

He is being generous. I have read reports which suggest as little as 3%.

The doctor also exposes  that this truth has gotten too little press. The confirmation bias of anecdotal evidence, which suggests, very weakly, that the AA program works, ends up ignoring the 90% who do not succeed in AA.

They do not tell their stories, and they do not relate the damage which this program does to people.

In the Interview, Dodes also criticized the tally system of the program, which forces members back to zero if they take a drink after six months. Some of the patients who get out of AA ending up feeling  more depressed because they do not get sober.

Bringing a clinical analysis to the studies which support AA, Dr. Dodes slams the methodology and research methods of the reports.

He then relates the depression and frustration from former members, while outlining that any success which individuals draw from the Twelve Step groups actually has nothing to do with the program, but the social support in the rooms.

Thank God for Dr. Dodes, who also reported that the program not only does not work for many people, but actually harms members, because the program's ironclad assertion "It works if you work it" puts all the blame on the individual, when in fact it is the program which does not work.